Tamale cornbread dressing

The first time I heard of tamales used as a stuffing was in Mary Faulk Koock’s The Texas Cookbook, where she tells a story about a friend of hers in Amarillo who packs his turkey with dozens of tamales before throwing it on a grill and slathering it with barbecue sauce.

“Brilliant!” I said to myself. “I must try that!”

Of course, with no outdoor space I knew that my opportunities to grill a turkey were limited. But using tamales as a stuffing (or dressing, as we say down South), was very intriguing.

In my family, my uncle is on dressing duty every year so it’s not a dish I’ve spent much time making or refining. But I couldn’t stop thinking about incorporating tamales into the dressing, especially since tamales embrace some of the finer qualities of a dressing with their soft, steamed dough wrapped around a piquant, flavorful filling. And when you throw in some crumbled cornbread and roasted jalapeños, you’ve taken something traditional and elevated it to something unique.

Even though I’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving with my family at my grandma’s farm, I’m a firm believer that feasting well and showing gratitude shouldn’t just be limited to one day. It’s for this reason my friends and I often get together and throw an early Thanksgiving dinner before we travel for the holiday. And when I learned I was on side-dish duty, I knew just what I would make. A little poking around led me to a few recipes for tamale cornbread dressing. Interestingly, most of them hailed from Austin though I did find one from the Rio Grande Valley. After much thought, I decided to adapt an Austin Chronicle recipe that appealed to me because it had lots of cheese and corn. I also threw in some cilantro, cumin and garlic for more flavor, and in a nod to my uncle’s dressing I swapped out the poblano chiles for jalapeños, which added more fire and pop to each bite.

While I made mine with beef tamales, it would be just as good with pork, chicken, turkey or any other type of tamale that you prefer. This recipe makes enough to serve eight hungry people, though it can easily be doubled if you have a larger crowd.

If you love cornbread and tamales, this dressing is for you. Sure, it’s special enough for the big feast, but I have a feeling it will be making more appearances in my kitchen during the colder months, especially if I have leftover cornbread I want to use. After all, as my uncle says, dressing is one of the ultimate comfort foods.

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Tamale cornbread dressing

Servings8

AuthorAdapted by Lisa Fain from an Austin Chronicle recipe

Ingredients

2tablespoonsbutter, divided

1/2medium yellow onion, diced

2clovesgarlic, minced

4cupscrumbled cornbread (1/2 of a baked 10-inch skillet)

1/2teaspoonground cumin

1/2teaspoondried sage

1/4cupchopped cilantro

3jalapeños, seeded and diced

1cupfrozen corn kernels

4ouncespepper Jack, shredded (1 cup)

6beef, pork, or chicken tamales, chopped

2cupsturkey or chicken broth

Salt

Black pepper

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

In a large cast-iron skillet, melt the butter on medium-low heat. Add the onions to the skillet and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 30 more seconds.

Once cooked, remove the skillet from the heat and transfer the cooked onions and garlic to a large bowl. Add to the large bowl the crumbled cornbread, cumin, sage, cilantro, corn kernels, diced jalapeños and pepper Jack cheese. Stir until well combined. Gently stir in the chopped tamales, and return the dressing to the skillet. (Alternatively, you can place the dressing in a greased 9×9 baking dish.)

Pour over the dressing the chicken broth and gently stir to combine. Adjust seasonings and add salt and pepper to taste. Cover the skillet with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 15 more minutes or until top is lightly browned and the edges are crisp.

Lisa: I love that Clay and Zack (over at the Bitten Word blog) do something similar to what you do with your friends . . . and call it "Fakesgiving"! My friends and I are doing the same thing this year (the weekend AFTER Thanksgiving! 😉

OH MY GOSH I'm making this as soon as possible! I've been craving something like this (I've considered Mexican cornbread, corn pudding, cornbread pudding, etc.) for the longest, and this recipe just intensifies the craving!

Mmm, this sounds delicious. I usually eat tamales only once per year, when I slather them in my dad's chili on Christmas Eve. For Thanksgiving, I always make my grandma's cornbread dressing (complete with li'l smokies and hot breakfast sausage), and I'd never stray from that, but this would be great for a pot luck. Out of curiosity, did you buy these tamales or make them?

Wow- and I thought jalapenos were hard to find in Paris. Now I am dreaming of tamales???? I'm thinking Thanksgiving in July, when I'm home and both jalapenos and tamales are plentiful! Thanks for giving me something else to look forward to!

This sounds incredible. Who would have thought! Thanks for posting. Can't wait to try it. Have a dozen pork tamales in the freezer now. Got to get the cornbread cooking. Nothing like dressing. You're right–dressing is a comfort food.

Also, I have to tell you that I am currently working as an aupair in Southern France, and am so "Texas homesick" (born and raised in Dallas, y'all) that I begged my mom to send me a copy of your cookbook in a care package. She did. I made your enchiladas for the French family I live with. They adored them. Still missing that Velveeta, but still…it was a literal taste of home. 🙂

I just made a dressing using polenta, Italian hot sausage and roasted red peppers. I find that cornbread by itself can get mushy so I made a polenta cornbread. Turned out wonderful, but now I HAVE to try your version.

My husband loves tamale stuffing especially the morning after topped with fried eggs and red chile. Your recipe is a bit different than mine though I may have to try a few new changes to it this year. Yummy!

Homesick Texan, i have what may seem like a silly question to you, but where on earth do you find good cast iron pans? I live in VA and I can't seem to find them anywhere! The only brand I really see, online and otherwise, is Lodge Logic, and that didn't get very good reviews. Any suggestions? I've been wanting a cast iron pan for forever.

This looks amazing! I recently learned how to make tamales, and now I'm totally addicted. My Texas girlfriend will absolutely LOVE the combination of tamales and cornbread– I can't wait to make this for her! (She's totally smitten with your site, by the way– she's a homesick Texan as well!)

Lisa, awesome stuff. This was well loved at the Thanksgiving table. I have a question though. I made it for a person who needed gluten free options. It seemed perfect as I make a southern style cornbread that uses no flour. As a result I think the liquids did not absorb as well as it would have with a cornbread that has flour in it–the bottom of the stuffing was slightly soupy.

Do you think adding a little thickener (corn starch or arrow root) to the stock or perhaps just less stock would help?

The picture was great, so I made it for Thanksgiving. Logical? No! Scrumptious? YES! I always honor the recipe the first time I try it and this was easy. Pork Tamales and already made cornbread from Central Market in Houston made it easy. Out of the oven, it was beautiful. Into the mouth, it was delicious. Thanks! Horns Hooked the Aggies tonight real good!

i myself am currently a homesick texan. i've spent the better part of 2 months in france now with 5 more to go and have been missing everything about the cuisine back home- namely the spice. coming from houston, i'm a born and bred spice junkie and have been missing the heat since leaving (i'm not complaining- a girl can get used to eating mounds upon mounds of chocolate and cheese. sometimes though, nothing quite does it like a jar of pickled jalapenos and the tang of barbecue sauce). i've adapted a couple of your recipes using the stuff i have available to me here (pretty small selection, but i have managed to find bird's eye chilis and sriracha, so i've been making good use of them). just wanted to say keep up the awesome writing and making the heartache of homesickness just a little less piquant. from one homesick texan to another.

I made this. Doubled the recipe. Simply the best thing I've ever eaten. Nothing left on Black Friday.

We finished off the leftovers late on Thursday while working a jigsaw puzzle and watching a movie. We took canned biscuits from Whole Foods, cut a slit in each biscuit dough puck and stuffed them with various combinations of tamale cornbread dressing, turkey, potatoes, green beans and cranberry sauce. Then, after some time in the oven, we topped each biscuit off with cream gravy.

I ordered a few dozen tamales at Christmas and threw some in the freezer. I was so excited when I found this recipe & I couldn't wait to try it out. My husband was skeptical & not very happy I was using all of the leftover tamales for this dish but in the end he was amazed at how awesome this was. I served it as the main course for dinner. I can't wait for more tamales to make it again. Thank you for your awesome recipes!

Dumb question from a new englander making these for thanksgiving in tucson tomorrow. I steam the tamales first then combine with cornbread etc? Thanks bunches father in law is dreaming if this tomorrow :). Deb v

Deb–Yes, the tameles are steamed not raw. But if you're working with tamales that have already been steamed (cooked) but are cold because perhaps you made them or bought them the day before, you don't have to re-steam them as they'll heat as the dressing cooks.

I made this yesterday, altered only slightly, used just one jalapeno I (I thought 3 was way over the top for our group) and added a handful of pepitas, since I had them on hand. It was absolutely delicious, and everyone asked for the recipe!

I’ve been making this for the past 4 years for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We do traditional everything for Thanksgiving, but I add in something from Texas and Louisiana. This is the BEST dressing EVER!!!!

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